Meta discontinues Messenger Lite for Android, it will be unavailable after Sep 18. Users need to install regular Messenger app instead

Suppoze@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 496 points –

I have not found any news article on this on a whim. Because my friends and family, I need to use Facebook Messenger, and Messenger Lite was a OK client - lightweight, no unnecessary features, etc., compared to the regular Messenger app.

Now I'm a little torn, having a Meta app on my phone is already bad, but having to downgrade to the bloated Messenger app? Not sure I will make a change. What are your thoughts?

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I'm on the same page. I would prefer not having those apps installed or even an account, but my friends are more worth to me than my IT ideals.

It's too bad that your friendship isn't more important than ten minutes of inconvenience for them to install a different app or to give you their actual phone number.

I find that you're making a lot of assumptions on my friendships based on my 4 lines comment.

I do chat with my friends via SMS or phone cause I indeed have their number. But you can't deny that SMS for group chats is pretty gruesome.

Based on that, everybody is used to those popular chat apps and have their other group chats on them. Why would I make them change when they work for what's intended? Privacy is the best argument, but they may not all care enough to not find it bothering. So I don't bother ¯_(ツ)_/¯

They dont work for what's intended. Its an illusion to pull money from your content and your potential ad revenue.

Thats not getting into any of the other sociological effects of a huge amount of people getting their daily news from Facebook message headlines.

It's exactly what social media platforms, particularly Facebook, want. They want you to feel locked in because your friends are there

I don't know why people don't just use more SMS. You don't need all the fancy bells and whistles, it shouldn't change the conversation you're having, especially with the gradual rollout of rich messages, and it has a wider audience than Facebook will ever have. More people have SMS than have Facebook

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